Teen Titans: The Hidden Evil
by walkerjordan963
Summary: It has been 3 months since the Titans returned to a very different Jump City in "Things Change" and things have only gone from bad to worse. Will the broken team be able to come together or will a new approaching evil tear them further apart.
1. Chapter 1

Teen Titans: The Hidden Evil

_This is my first story so go easy please :P_

"All things truly wicked start from an innocence"_. _

_ERNEST HEMINGWAY_, A Moveable Feast

"No… not again", thought the girl curled up and hiding in an alleyway. "I can't hurt anybody else, I just can't…" Just when she thought she was regaining control of herself, she heard two sets of footsteps approaching.

"Just keep walking" she cried in her head, "please don't talk to me… just walk on past." Her heart fell when they stopped right in front of her.

"Miss?" said a childlike voice; she looked up to see a little boy with his hand stretched out holding a 5 dollar bill, and his father watching from behind. "I want you to have this."

* * *

A single tear dropped from the girl's eye, before the hunger took over and the screaming started.

Robin stood in the living room looking at a monitor highlighting multiple areas around jump city. "There has to be some connection, I just have to find it."

"Dude, there isn't. We have gone through everything. The victims have no connection." Cyborg said.

Robin turned to see the bionic titan sitting on the couch. "There has to be, Cyborg. Every serial killer has one."

"What if it isn't a serial killer though?"

"Look at the facts, Cyborg: he has killed every week for the last 3 months and every victim is missing his or her heart." Robin said in his annoyed voice. "Trust me: it's a serial killer, and all of these people have something in common that we're overlooking.

Robin shook his head. His team didn't get it; they have never dealt with a villain like this. They never fought Joker, Riddler, Two-Face and the other truly insane villains that he had faced. They all had patterns and whoever this "Heart Eater" or whatever the media was choosing to call him at the moment, had to have one too. He just had to crack it.

Robin was so lost in thought, he never even noticed that Cyborg had left.

* * *

"What happened?" Starfire, asked Cyborg when he walked into her room.

"He's obsessed; it's like Slade all over again." Cyborg replied

"No… we cannot go through that again! Our team might not survive it!" Starfire cried. Cyborg just looked at the floor.

"Star, I don't think the team is going to last much longer anyway." Cyborg said without looking up from the floor. Starfire grabbed Cyborg and pulled his head up.

"What do you mean?" She cried.

"Star… For the last 3 months Robin hasn't even talked to us, he has been so obsessed. Raven has been more anti – social then usual. And Beast Boy… well…"

* * *

"Why?" Beast Boy asked himself for what felt like the millionth time as he sat on his bed in his dark room, as was the usual pattern for him for the past 3 months. He picked up the Heart Shaped box next to him.

"I love you, Terra, why did you leave me?" He then recalled the last words she said to him, "Things Change." _But why do things have to?_ he thought. _They never change for the better._

He thought back to the time after the fight with the white robot. Sure, his arrival helped the Titans defeat it, but by the time he got back Terra had disappeared. He tried to find her but she never went back to the school and hadn't been seen since.

She was right, though, he thought. The city had changed, new, more blood thirsty villains had been coming out of the woodworks, while their old villains have been either disappearing or killed by the new ones.

Flashes of the bodies of Control Freak, Fang, and Mumbo-jumbo appeared before him. All killed by some teenager named Breath Taker trying to make a name for herself. He didn't even want to think about the "Heart Eater".

"Yes, things do change, but why did you have to?" He whispered to himself.

* * *

Terra nervously walked down the dimly lit street. "Dammit, why did I have to go to the late show?" she said to herself. Ever since her powers had disappeared she had become afraid to be out at night, especially in Las Vegas. The streets weren't safe to walk alone on.

Then she started to hear footsteps behind her. She began to be afraid. Too afraid to turn around, she started walking faster. The footsteps then started going faster as well. _No_! She thought,_ who is it, what do they want?_ Her mind flashed to Slade: _has he found me!? No, there is no way, I covered my tracks, it's not possible. But then who is it?_

She forced herself to stop and turn around. She sighed, nobody was there. She laughed nervously and turned around to see a massive man in front of her holding a knife.

"What's a pretty blonde like you doing out so late?" The man said with a twisted smile on his face. Before Terra could reply, he grabbed her and threw her roughly against the side of a building.

"Stop, please!" Terra pleaded.

"Don't lie, you know you want this." The rapist said as he pressed his knife on Terra's neck. He then began to unbutton his jeans, and Terra screamed.

"Shut up you fucking bit…" The man was caught off by Terra's eyes, which were glowing yellow. Suddenly everything started to shake and the ground underneath the man opened and swallowed him whole.

"What the…" Terra said. "My powers…they're… back…" She then heard a lady screaming about the earthquake and bolted away.

By the time Terra had left, the screaming lady had arrived the hole and looked down. "Is anybody down there?!" She screamed down. She was about to take out her phone to call 911 when a demonic creature made of pure darkness with blood red eyes crawled out of the hole. Before the lady could scream again, the creature decapitated her with one swipe of its claws.

The creature then took a humanoid shape and revealed a communication device hidden in its darkness. "Shroud to Ouroboros: it's done."

* * *

The cybernetic entity smiled. His current project was going smoother than he'd anticipated: "Terra" had accessed her powers already. "Shroud, return to base, good work."

"Yes sir." Shroud replied, then signed off.

The entity lay back in his chair, when a soldier wearing white and black armor that looked like it was surgically attached to his skin entered the room. He saluted. "Sir, Alice has claimed two more victims. Is it time to retrieve her?"

"Was she hesitant?" The entity asked.

"From what we can tell, yes, sir." The soldier replied

"Then no, leave her alone."

"But sir, she has been on the loose for 3 months. Don't you thin..."

"DO NOT QUESTION ME!" The entity boomed. "Until she can kill without any remorse, she is no use to us. So we leave her alone."

"Yes, General Ishii." The Soldier answered. He saluted smartly, and then left.

Ishii then brought up an image of Alice on the screen in front of him. "Soon, little girl, you will become my greatest achievement."


	2. Chapter 2

By the time the three Titans arrived on the scene in the T-Car, the police had practically taken over the entire city block. Robin opened the side door and walked right over to the commissioner without waiting or even glancing back at Cyborg and Starfire, both of whom were still getting out of the car.

Cyborg let out an annoyed grunt while Starfire couldn't hide the hurt look on her face. "Why does he have to act this way? He is still our friend, yes?" She asked Cyborg.

"To be honest Star, I don't think friendship is even on his mind right now." Cyborg reluctantly said. They both then began to walk toward Robin and the commissioner.

Robin turned to see them but focused on Cyborg._Damn, why did he have to come along? I can't deal with him contradicting everything I say right now,_ Robin said to himself for the upteenth time since cyborg had joined him in the car. "Cyborg, why don't you scan the surrounding area for evidence?" Robin ordered him.

"Alright, boss." Cyborg said begrudgingly and walked off. Starfire stood quietly beside Robin, looking at him worriedly.

Robin looked at the bodies that seemed to be in the shape of an adult male and a child hidden under white sheets. "Can we see the bodies?" Robin said to the commissioner. Once he saw under the sheets, he knew that the "Heart Eater" had claimed two more victims.

* * *

"Fuck, I wish Beast boy was here. He would at least make this shit job somewhat entertaining." Cyborg said to himself. He hadn't hung out with him in what felt like forever, seeing as he was always in his room alone, or occasionally with Raven.

He had asked Raven what was wrong with Beast Boy once but she had just said "He needs some time to himself right now." In her monotone voice. _Come to think of it, that was the only time I've spoken to Raven in a long time as well,_ He said to himself.

Raven spent all of her time in her room now, refusing, much like Beast Boy, to go on missions. Cyborg remembered Robin had tried to get her to use her magic to help him find the Heart Eater a week ago. All she said was "I have far more important things to do right now" and walked away.

Cyborg stopped walking and sighed; all of the happy memories he had with the team flashed through his eyes. "Why do things have to change?" he said to himself. He stared at the ground when his electronic eye picked something up on the ground.

It was a very small trace of blood, so small that normal police devices wouldn't even have picked it up. He followed it with his eye and saw a trail of blood heading down the alleyway. "What do we have here?" He said to himself as he began to follow it.

* * *

The mysterious girl sat in an alleyway waiting very… impatiently. "Fuck, he just had to have a knife, didn't he?" she said to herself, in a sarcastic voice, as she thought back to her victim's father who had stabbed her. She lifted up the bottom of her hoodie to take another look at the incredibly painful hole in her gut.

"Who's idea was it to make me immortal without indestructible skin?" she said to herself. She then looked at the ground next to her, only to see a discarded McDonald's bag with what sounded like a rat inside. "There has to be a nicer place to rest." She said as she tried to stand up. She had overestimated her own strength, however, and started to fall on her face, only to be caught by what looked like a half- man, half-robot.

* * *

Robin sat at his desk back at Titans' Tower, looking at all of the crime scene photos the police had given him. They showed a father and son with both their necks snapped by strength alone. _Twisted,_ thought Robin, _whoever this is, they are definitely a Joker-level psychopath._

He looked at the victims' chests again to see the Heart Eater's signature "Black Mark." Robin didn't know how the killer did it but every one of his victims' chests had turned completely black, and not only th…

Robin's train of thought was cut off by an email from the coroner's office. He opened it to see the Heart Eater's other signature. The Coroner had cut open the victims' chests to find out that their hearts had disappeared.

"It's confirmed then, two more victims." He added their names to the list of lives the Heart Eater had taken. "In 35 weeks, 39 victims. Whoever he is, he needs to be stopped."

* * *

"Are you okay, miss?" Cyborg asked, after he helped the girl to her feet.

"Yes I'm fine." She said in an unconvincing tone.

Cyborg looked at her. The girl was blonde, and wearing a ratty hoodie and ripped jeans. Probably a runaway, Cyborg thought. He then noticed what looked to be a large blood stain on the right side of her hoodie.

"Miss, you don't have to be afraid. My name is Cyborg. I'm one of the Teen Titans. I can help you." The girl looked unconvinced. "Could you at least tell me your name?" Cyborg asked.

"Alice."


End file.
